CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
One of the best short story writers in America, he has a new book out that I haven't had a chance to read yet, but this one is a great place to start. Like Halftime Walk this is mostly satire about America, but framed in various strange dystopian future settings. A lot of dark humor and a lot of fun.

It doesn't get much better than "The 400 Pound CEO."

Quote:

Originally Posted by George Saunders

Maybe the God we see, the God who calls the daily shots, is merely a subGod. Maybe there's a God above this subGod who's busy for a few Godminutes with something else, and will be right back; and when he gets back will take the subGod by the ear and say: Now look. Look at that fat man. What did he ever do to you? Wasn't he humble enough? Didn't he endure enough abuse for a thousand men? Weren't the simplest tasks hard? Didn't you sense him craving affection? Were you unaware that his days unraveled as one long bad dream? And maybe as the sub- God slinks away, the true God will sweep me up in his arms, saying: My sincere apologies, a mistake has been made. Accept a new birth, as token of my esteem.

And I will emerge again from between the legs of my mother, a slighter and more beautiful baby, destined for a different life, in which I am masterful, sleek as a deer, a winner.

Good to see another Saunders fan out there. Is this the first book Saunders' book you've read? All are highly recommended. The new collection includes some of his best work, though there are one or two clunkers.

I'm currently about halfway through Mein Kampf which I found for a few bucks recently.

Very hard read because Hitler jumps from thought to thought in a disorganized manner, and the book seems like a giant run on sentence especially when he talks about himself.

Oddly, in what I've read so far, he made some rather accurate predictions about today's dysfunctional democratic process (at least in this country) and said EXACTLY WHAT HE WOULD DO if he ever got in a position of power.

At the age of 10, I got a copy of the novelization of the movie Alien. Ironically, my parents wouldn't let me watch the movie, but had no problems with me reading it, so I read the movie years before I ever watched it.

The novelization is pretty much a prose version of the screenplay written by Alan Dean Foster (Alien (1979) ISBN 0-446-82977-3). The screenwriter for the movie was Dan O'Bannon. It is just shy of 200 pages long. There are only 2 differences I can remember. The first is a conversation between the female crew members. In the book, Ripley asks Lambert if she's ever slept with Ash, hinting at a fair degree of promiscuity among the crew members.

The second I include because it's possibly the most chilling part of the book, but was never featured in Ridley Scott's epic movie.

Ripley still hadn't moved. Faint shrieks reached her over the 'com. The screams were Lambert's and they faded with merciful speed. Then it was quiet again.

She spoke toward the pickup. "Parker...Lambert?"

She waited for a response, expecting none. Her expectations were fulfilled. The import of the continuing silence took only a moment to settle in.
She was alone. There were probably three living things left on the ship: the alien, Jones, and herself. But she had to be sure.

It meant leaving Jones behind. She didn't want to, but the cat had heard the screams and was meowing frantically. He was making too much noise!

She reached B deck unopposed, her flamethrower held tightly in both hands. The food locker lay just ahead. There was an outside chance the alien had left someone behind, being unable to manuever itself and two bodies through the narrow ducts. A chance that someone might still be alive.

She peered around the jamb of the locker entrance. What remained showed her how the alien had succeeded in squeezing both victims into the airshaft. Then she was running, running. Blindly, a little madly, neither thinking or caring. Walls reached out to stun her and slow her down, but nothing halted her crazed flight. She ran until her lungs hurt. They reminded her of Kane and the creature that had matured inside him, next to his lungs. That in turn reminded her of the alien.

All that thinking brought her back to her senses. Gulping for breath, she slowed and took stock of her surroundings. She'd run the length of the ship. Now she found herself standing alone in the middle of the engine room.

She heard something and stopped breathing. It was repeated, and she let out a cautious sigh. The sound was familiar, the sound was human. It was the sound of weeping.

Still cradling the flamethrower, she walked slowly around the room until the source of the noise lay directly below her. She found she was standing on a companionway cover, a round metal disc. Keeping half her attention on the well-lit chamber surrounding her, she knelt and removed the disc. A ladder descended into the near darkness.

She felt her way down the ladder until she reached solid footing. Then she activated her light bar. She was in a small maintenance chamber. The light picked out plastic crates, rarely used tools. It also fell on bones with shreds of flesh still attached. Her skin crawled as the light moved over fragments of clothing, dried blood, a ruined boot. Bizarre extrusions lined the wall.

A huge cocoon hung from the ceiling, off to her right. It looked like an enclosed, translucent hammock, woven from fine white silky material. It twitched.

Her finger tense on the trigger of the flamethrower, she walked nearer. The beam from her lightbar made the cocoon slightly transparent. There was a body inside...Dallas!

Quite unexpectadly the eyes opened and focused on Ripley. Lips parted, moved to form words. She moved closer, simultaneously fascinated and repelled.

"Kill me," the whisperer pleaded with her.

"What...what did it do to you?"

Dallas tried to speak again, failed. His head turned a little to the right. Ripley swung her light, turned it upward slightly. A second cocoon hung there, different in texture and color from the first. It was smaller and darker, the silk having formed a hard, shining shell. It looked, although Ripley couldn't know it, like the broken, empty urn on the derelict ship.

"That was Brett." Her light turned back to focus on the speaker again.

"I'll get you out of here." She was crying. "We'll crank up the autodoc, get you..."

She broke off, unable to talk. She was remembering Ash's analogy of the spider, the wasp. The live young feeding on the paralyzed body of the spider, growing, the spider aware of what was happening but...

Somehow she managed to shut off that horrid line of thought. Madness lay that way. "What can I do?" she sobbed.

The same agonized whisper. "Kill me."

She stared at him. Mercifully, his eyes had closed. But his lips were trembling, as if he were readying a scream. She didn't think she could stand to hear that scream.

The nozzle of the flamethrower rose and she convulsively depressed the trigger. A molten blast enveloped the cocoon and the thing that had been Dallas. It and he burned without a sound. Then she swung the fire around the lair. The entire compartment burst into flames. She was already scrambling back up the ladder, heat licking at her legs.

This book was amazing. This is just another classic book that holds your attention and makes you want to not put it down! Such a good book!!! There are certainly many fabulous characters in this series.There are those to hate (The angry mole), to love (the curly pube), to admire (the right nut), and to despise (the saggy sack and Joff the Dick).Also the army of crabs kicked arse. The list of characters that populate this series is enormous, and it is quite daunting as you begin. As the stories continue to weave together though, it becomes easy to keep track of the characters and become absorbed in their tales. I cried, laughed and vomitted. It was a great book. I cant wait for the movie, I heard it was in 3d.

This book was amazing. This is just another classic book that holds your attention and makes you want to not put it down! Such a good book!!! There are certainly many fabulous characters in this series.There are those to hate (The angry mole), to love (the curly pube), to admire (the right nut), and to despise (the saggy sack and Joff the Dick).Also the army of crabs kicked arse. The list of characters that populate this series is enormous, and it is quite daunting as you begin. As the stories continue to weave together though, it becomes easy to keep track of the characters and become absorbed in their tales. I cried, laughed and vomitted. It was a great book. I cant wait for the movie, I heard it was in 3d.

Interesting, but I'm really holding out for the sequel "Why does it hurt when I pee?" I hear it's loosely adapted from an old Frank Zappa song by the same name.

I would suggest reading more than one history of the US for proper perspective. Whatever is the same, is what you need to know and not the author's opinion.

"History is the lie commonly agreed upon." ~ Voltaire

I don't know if you've actually read Zinn's book, but the purpose was to shed light on the forgotten players in U.S. history (hence "A People's History"). The triumphs of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, et al have been told from nearly every conceivable angle. This is more of a supplementary text about how common people lived.

It's five years after Return of the Jedi: the Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, and driven out the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet to a distant corner of the galaxy. Princess Leia and Han Solo are married and expecting Jedi Twins. And Luke Skywalker has become the first in a long-awaited line of Jedi Knights. But thousand of light-years away, the last of the emperor's warlords has taken command of the shattered Imperial Fleet, readied it for war, and pointed it at the fragile heart of the new Republic. For this dark warrior has made two vital discoveries that could destroy everything the courageous men and women of the Rebel Alliance fought so hard to build. The explosive confrontation that results is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale--in short, a story worthy of the name Star Wars

Well...... It would have been a lot better if I read it in 1991 when it was written. Episodes 1-3 contradict some of the events in the book. Dark Jedi instead of the Sith ect. It was also pretty cheesy but I guess that was to be expected. I will probably read the other 2 now that I am invested but really this is not a great book.

At the age of 10, I got a copy of the novelization of the movie Alien. Ironically, my parents wouldn't let me watch the movie, but had no problems with me reading it, so I read the movie years before I ever watched it.

The novelization is pretty much a prose version of the screenplay written by Alan Dean Foster (Alien (1979) ISBN 0-446-82977-3). The screenwriter for the movie was Dan O'Bannon. It is just shy of 200 pages long. There are only 2 differences I can remember. The first is a conversation between the female crew members. In the book, Ripley asks Lambert if she's ever slept with Ash, hinting at a fair degree of promiscuity among the crew members.

The second I include because it's possibly the most chilling part of the book, but was never featured in Ridley Scott's epic movie.

Ripley still hadn't moved. Faint shrieks reached her over the 'com. The screams were Lambert's and they faded with merciful speed. Then it was quiet again.

She spoke toward the pickup. "Parker...Lambert?"

She waited for a response, expecting none. Her expectations were fulfilled. The import of the continuing silence took only a moment to settle in.
She was alone. There were probably three living things left on the ship: the alien, Jones, and herself. But she had to be sure.

It meant leaving Jones behind. She didn't want to, but the cat had heard the screams and was meowing frantically. He was making too much noise!

She reached B deck unopposed, her flamethrower held tightly in both hands. The food locker lay just ahead. There was an outside chance the alien had left someone behind, being unable to manuever itself and two bodies through the narrow ducts. A chance that someone might still be alive.

She peered around the jamb of the locker entrance. What remained showed her how the alien had succeeded in squeezing both victims into the airshaft. Then she was running, running. Blindly, a little madly, neither thinking or caring. Walls reached out to stun her and slow her down, but nothing halted her crazed flight. She ran until her lungs hurt. They reminded her of Kane and the creature that had matured inside him, next to his lungs. That in turn reminded her of the alien.

All that thinking brought her back to her senses. Gulping for breath, she slowed and took stock of her surroundings. She'd run the length of the ship. Now she found herself standing alone in the middle of the engine room.

She heard something and stopped breathing. It was repeated, and she let out a cautious sigh. The sound was familiar, the sound was human. It was the sound of weeping.

Still cradling the flamethrower, she walked slowly around the room until the source of the noise lay directly below her. She found she was standing on a companionway cover, a round metal disc. Keeping half her attention on the well-lit chamber surrounding her, she knelt and removed the disc. A ladder descended into the near darkness.

She felt her way down the ladder until she reached solid footing. Then she activated her light bar. She was in a small maintenance chamber. The light picked out plastic crates, rarely used tools. It also fell on bones with shreds of flesh still attached. Her skin crawled as the light moved over fragments of clothing, dried blood, a ruined boot. Bizarre extrusions lined the wall.

A huge cocoon hung from the ceiling, off to her right. It looked like an enclosed, translucent hammock, woven from fine white silky material. It twitched.

Her finger tense on the trigger of the flamethrower, she walked nearer. The beam from her lightbar made the cocoon slightly transparent. There was a body inside...Dallas!

Quite unexpectadly the eyes opened and focused on Ripley. Lips parted, moved to form words. She moved closer, simultaneously fascinated and repelled.

"Kill me," the whisperer pleaded with her.

"What...what did it do to you?"

Dallas tried to speak again, failed. His head turned a little to the right. Ripley swung her light, turned it upward slightly. A second cocoon hung there, different in texture and color from the first. It was smaller and darker, the silk having formed a hard, shining shell. It looked, although Ripley couldn't know it, like the broken, empty urn on the derelict ship.

"That was Brett." Her light turned back to focus on the speaker again.

"I'll get you out of here." She was crying. "We'll crank up the autodoc, get you..."

She broke off, unable to talk. She was remembering Ash's analogy of the spider, the wasp. The live young feeding on the paralyzed body of the spider, growing, the spider aware of what was happening but...

Somehow she managed to shut off that horrid line of thought. Madness lay that way. "What can I do?" she sobbed.

The same agonized whisper. "Kill me."

She stared at him. Mercifully, his eyes had closed. But his lips were trembling, as if he were readying a scream. She didn't think she could stand to hear that scream.

The nozzle of the flamethrower rose and she convulsively depressed the trigger. A molten blast enveloped the cocoon and the thing that had been Dallas. It and he burned without a sound. Then she swung the fire around the lair. The entire compartment burst into flames. She was already scrambling back up the ladder, heat licking at her legs.

I too read the book Alien and yes, this scene is in the movie, they just edited out of the final movie release. However, you can get the DVD with the expanded version and this scene is in it.

The reason Ridley Scott deleted the scene was because of the tension of Ripley being completely alone, running through the big ship. Scott didn't want that tension broken with this scene so he cut it out of the final release. Makes sense to me because the tension of Ripley being completely alone, trying to make her way to the shuttle and being restricted by the time she has before the ship explodes is all very intense.

Also, a little bit of trivia: The original title of the movie was not Alien, but Space Truckers. The crew of the ship were not exactly the best of the best, but more like your average freight hauler. You can see this in the movie as some of the characters are sorta redneck types. However, I think it was after they settled on HR Geiger's creepy monster and put the entire set together, along with the actors and script that they realized this title would never work and they changed it to Alien